1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to finger and thumb picks to be worn by a musician to pluck or strum the strings of a musical instrument.
2. Background Art
Finger picks and thumb picks have long been used by musicians as an alternative to using one's fingers and/or fingernails to pluck or strum the strings of a musical instrument. However, there are certain inherent shortcomings with conventional picks. Most importantly, it has been difficult to reliably attach the same pick to a variety of different fingers and thumbs having different shapes so as to prevent the pick from sliding during play. Moreover, the construction of the conventional finger pick having a longitudinally aligned body or tongue may lead to early finger fatigue because the user is often required to contort his hand in an unnatural position in order to pluck all of the strings of some instruments. Moreover, it has sometimes been difficult for the musician to obtain consistent tone quality and high volume when using conventional finger and thumb picks. This problem is particularly acute when the user moves his thumb through an arc to pluck all of the strings such that a different part of the thumb pick will impact each of the strings.
Examples of conventional finger and thumb picks for playing stringed musical instruments are available by referring to one or more of the following United States patents:
______________________________________ 401,476 N.E. Barnes April 16, 1889 413,579 S.S. Stewart October 22, 1889 566,806 G.B. Shearer September 1, 1896 1,296,284 H.K. Gilman March 4, 1919 1,787,136 G.D. Beauchamp December 30, 1930 2,016,438 Y.K. Kealoha October 8, 1935 3,739,681 J. Dunlop June 19, 1973 ______________________________________